The Passionate Voice

The Sunday 7

• Lifestyle, Travel

Oh, Sunday’s. 

1. We saw Nelly this past week. Like the rapper. Who say ‘Hot in Here.’ Yes, it was epic. Like circa 2004 epicness that made my high school-University self sing WAY too loud. It was the best $45 I’ve spent in a while. It reminded me how we need more of those random nights out with friends that turn out to be the best nights.

2. I have a day in Toronto planned for some work-related things and meet-ups.. a day in the big city sans babe is what my heart needs right now.

3. This tote has my heart swooning. I’m just wondering if it’s big enough to hold all of my stuff.. and Blake’s stuff :S

4. Now that Spring may be here (the last two weekends have been sunny and made me hopeful here in Guelph!), I’m wondering where the Instagram spring stickers are now?!! Come on #Instagram!

5. If we’re talking about Spring, a good ol’ ‘Spring clean’ of the house is necessary. I found this handy list of one item you can do each day for a month to get your place clean super helpful.

6. A place we forget to clean that we use daily? Our smartphones. I used this list to give the iphone a good clean tonight!

7. Talk about a fun-filled week, we celebrated the upcoming nuptials of my girl Mac at The Fancy Design Co with a girls night out. It was wildly fun, I wouldn’t expect anything else from our group of friends. A night out with the gals celebrating one of the best people I know was SO needed after a week of Blake being sick with a cold. We had dinner at Gilt in Kitchener and oh yum, was that menu amazing.

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Taking a {Moment} to Pause

• Communication, Lifestyle, Social Media, Travel

This fall has been one of a kind. Fall in the agriculture world (my daily profession) is always a busy time of year. Harvest, Fall fairs, Ontario Agriculture Week, AGM’s and trade shows. Add a baby, some speaking gigs and travel (not to mention life!) into the mix and a whole new meaning to busy comes to mind.

I was on the road earlier this fall travelling here and there to attend events where I had the opportunity to speak and see industry colleagues, friends and even blog readers (hi Mary!).  This is something I have valued so much since becoming a mother – the opportunity to get out of the house and talk with others about things beyond motherhood. Don’t get me wrong, I love being a new mom but there is nothing like keeping the brain stimulated beyond the baby talk of goo goo gagas and talking current events, agriculture or anything for that matter.

One thing I’ve also come to value and be more conscious of this fall is my use of social media.

Because social media is what I do for a living and the means to which I consume most of my news and keep in touch with people, I’ve wanted to ensure I’m using it with the best of intention. I don’t want to find myself aimlessly scrolling through social channels *just because* especially now that Blake is here.

Having a child has also made me question everything I post on social media for fear of the unknown – could/if photos of your baby appear somewhere you (or they) never expected one day? Because we’re writing the social media books as we speak (and they’re ever-evolving!), its hard to know where pictures of your kids and content could surface. I’ll be blogging more about this in coming weeks.

When smartphones were becoming a *thing* only a few short years ago, nothing bothered me more than watching someone at a public event have their face buried in their phone scrolling through their Facebook or Instagram channel. I didn’t want to be that person. Heck, I entered the workforce at a time when the etiquette was to not even bring your phone(s) into meetings. That definitely dates me… and that wasn’t even a decade ago (face palm)!

I’ve made two simple changes this fall that have really helped me disconnect when needed and feel like I’m in control of my social media and phone, not the other way around:

  1. I have disconnected my email account from my phone. Every time I want to check my emails now, I have to go to safari and log in to my account which makes it more time consuming to do, hence limiting how many times a day I check my emails. Also, not waking up every morning to that red bubble telling me the number of emails I have waiting for me before the day has even begun has felt transformational.
  2. I downloaded the Moment app to track my screen time usage. I have been able to see how much I use my phone and know which apps are the most time consuming. I have been able to set daily limits on how much I use my phone and it then sends me reminders before it locks me out of my phone if I’ve went beyond the limits I’ve set. Wild stat: the average person spends 4 hours a day on their smartphone! I know, crazy right?!

Having the independence away from my phone has been a mind game changer. Social media is an incredible tool if you use it to your advantage, not let it be all consuming.

Social media is an incredible tool if you use it to your advantage, not let it be all consuming.

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As a communications professional, you have to stay on top of the social media game in terms of what’s new/trending and actively use platforms to engage. But you can do it in a strategic, manageable, less mind-numbing way. And, your smartphone data bill will thank you, I know mine sure has. Not to mention, a more healthy personal lifestyle will surely follow if your making memories and not documenting *every* personal detail of what you ate, wore, did while showcasing your selfie game for the millionth time. Unless of course, if that’s how you making a living or its what you love doing, then social media it up!

Airplanes: A Destination for Silence

• Communication, Lifestyle, Social Media

There aren’t many places where you can now fully disconnect. Places where you can’t access wifi and be hooked to the internet and your smartphone. Places where you can totally be #offline.

Thinking back to my first trip to Europe in 2009, I couldn’t call home on my cellphone, let alone get a wifi signal to use my cell (notice I called it a cellphone not a smartphone, that dates me already!) That was less than a decade ago. Oh how technology has advanced in such a short period of time!

While in Europe, I had to go to Internet cafes or use pay phones with calling cards to call home to let my parents know I was safe and sound. I remember taking photos with my camera here and there at the most memorable tourist attractions but I couldn’t be bothered with documenting my entire trip through the lens of my camera. I wanted to experience it all in person. And let’s be serious, even if I wanted to document it all through the best filters and apps, my flip phone didn’t even have the capabilities to take photos. God, I really am dating myself. 

Fast forward almost a decade later, and you can now connect almost anywhere in the world at any time of the day. They even now offer wifi on some planes which seemed like the last place we’d ever see access to internet introduced. I always thought it interfered with the airplane signals?! #GuessIwasWrong

On most flights where they now offer wifi, they at least have put a price tag to access wifi. Its a hefty price tag, but I am glad they put the price high so it discourages me to pay for internet. 

Here’s why….

Airplanes are one of the last places where we can put boundaries or restrictions on using our smartphones and accessing social media. Its one of the last remaining places where we are guaranteed silence. Where we expect to be left alone. Its one of the last places where we are forced to sit alone with our thoughts… scary I know.

Its where you can read a book quietly or watch a movie… with no dings, no alerts, no vibrations.

On airplanes, I get some of my best ideas. Its where my creative juices get a flowin’. Its where I pull out pen and paper and write down blog post ideas, work on my editorial calendar, brainstorm content for upcoming presentations, process ideas and thoughts and let my mind wander. 

Its one of the best feelings.

I’ve come away from my recent trip visiting my in-laws in Manitoba with many blog posts written and random thoughts documented. Some samples from my most recent two hour personal brainstorm session plane ride?

  • Agriculture faces a re-branding challenge. I tweeted about this idea this week. Its one of the biggest challenges I believe we face in the industry I grew up in and love to work in. I’ll be elaborating on this thought later this week when I serve on a Co-operators ag panel.
  • On the topic of agriculture, it just recently dawned on me that for the better part of my political career, I have been the minority. Working in agriculture in downtown Toronto, surrounded by consumers who don’t know much about agriculture and farming is where I’ve realized I’m not the majority. When I was a kid growing up, I just naturally assumed everyone knew about farming because hey, that’s what everyone did right?! Do those who work in agriculture sometimes forget, including me, that we aren’t the majority anymore in the circles we need to be selling our industry too?! And are we comfortable being the minority?
  • Social media is changing the operational functions of customer service departments for companies and businesses. Both good and bad. I talked about this at a presentation I gave earlier this week from a customer service experience I witnessed on Twitter recently. Blog post written on this = check.
  • A ‘Someday File’ – we all have one. Places we’d like to travel too; things we want to buy; books we want to read; things we want to learn. What holds us back from doing any of it?! After reading more of Mark Manson’s ‘The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck’ it got my mind racing on so many topics he writes about and my own ‘someday file’ and why I keep making lists but don’t DO alot of them.

So many thoughts I know for a two hour flight 😛 So much writing, so little time. Also, here is to our first successful trip and plane ride with Blake. Thankfully it was a smooth ride and experience. Thanks little man for making this mom feel like she hit the baby jackpot #MotherWin 

Wise Words

• Career, Communication, Lifestyle

I’ve had two experiences recently that have reminded me of the power of our language. With the click of most of our smartphone keyboards, our words are now auto-corrected and fixed for us. This has allowed us to “lazy up” on our language skills and need not worry about how to spell words, let alone check a dictionary to expand our vocabulary. We aren’t choosing the most sophisticated words to reflect our thoughts and feelings anymore. 

To say our vocabulary as human beings is becoming quite basic in this social media, technology-driven age is an understatement. Its probably why I enjoy reading books as much as  I do. I love the lessons a good book can impart and the rich words that good writers use to tell a story.

When I started my career, I had a flip book in the top of my desk drawer. I would try and find a new word a week and write it in this flip book to learn and refer too as a way to expand my vocabulary and better my writing. It was a helpful exercise (that I have since stopped doing) but it was a great way to continue to learn and expand my personal dictionary of words. 

Recently, I engaged in a conversation on Twitter that I thought would be productive but it began with words from the other party that were quite abrupt to start off the conversation. These words didn’t help to foster a productive conversation, or at least make me feel like we were going to have a positive experience and engage in meaningful dialogue.

It was a good reminder. If you want to have a productive conversation with someone, don’t tell them their opinion is bad by using words that aren’t conducive to the conversation. In order to have a conversation, people must go back and forth with words. The words you choose to use can alter the direction of a conversation quickly – both in a good direction and bad. 

“The words you choose to use can alter the direction of a conversation quickly.” – The Passionate…

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Productive conversations, regardless of where you stand on an issue, includes language that is inclusive, respectful and meaningful. Using words that insults a person, aren’t respectful in nature, or aren’t used in the right tone can turn someone off from having a conversation with you the next time.

The second example includes a night of playing scrabble with my family at our cottage.

I haven’t played scrabble in years. Scratch that. I couldn’t remember the first time I played scrabble. I must have been bad at it when I first played otherwise I would have remembered the experience vividly (#SoreLoserAnyone?!) Off topic, sorry…

While playing scrabble, it reminded me of that first experience earlier on Twitter and how an expanded vocabulary doesn’t hurt anyone.s 

Playing a game like scrabble teaches you words you didn’t realize you could even come up with let alone know the meaning for. Until you are asked to put together words with 7 of the most random letters of the alphabet and you have a killer instinct to want to WIN, it can be an exciting challenge for your brain. Scrabble made me think of words beyond the basic Twitter speak, smartphone auto-corrections and the latest acronyms like FOMO and YOLO (you only live once for those who have to google it like I first had to do!)

Examples of words from our game that you may be surprised to learn the meaning for, like I was….

Fid – a thick peg, wedge, or supporting pin.

Yuch – a variant of the word yuck..

Xi – the 14th letter of the Greek alphabet (and yes, it can be used in the game of scrabble!).

An expanded and robust vocabulary only helps you to better articulate your thoughts and feelings… oh, and wise words just makes you sound smarter. Go figure! I may just be pulling that flip book back out again to continue to add to my word bank. 

On a side note, the photo of the books above arranged by colour has totally inspired me to want to do the same with the zillions of books I’ve collected over the years. Problem is, I need to find wall/bookcase space in my house. On to my next project!

[Photo Source]

An Open Mind + Will Travel

• Inspiration, Lifestyle, Travel

“For the weekend, live in your body, not in your mind” – Alexia Vernon

When I read this quote on the blog of one of my favourite fellow #girlbosses and kick a$$ speaker, Alexia Vernon,  I couldn’t help but think of how true this was and how more people need to follow this motto. It is something I’ve been trying to practice more of on weekends,  learning to step away from the smartphone/computer (or at least from social media channels) to spend more time outdoors, which is something the corporate world doesn’t allow a lot of during the week.

To enjoy the start of Fall, my favourite season, Andrew and I slipped away for a quick overnight getaway to Lake Huron last weekend. It was a quick and easy two hour drive that was literally in our backyard.

lake-huron

We did one of our favourite bike rides from Southampton to Port Elgin along the shores of Lake Huron before arriving in Bayfield, to stay overnight. The weather was perfection, the right transition between summer sunsets and the cool breeze of fall. And the views! We watched locals sailing on Lake Huron and took in the spectacular sunset by the local marina.

We happened to be in town at the right time too to take in the second annual Bayfield Volkfest… the picture above shows the vans parading down the historic main street in Bayfield on Sunday morning before they set up shop in the local park. We made sure to check out all the awesome stores on main street and before we left, we enjoyed treats from the local bakery Pink Flamingo which had the coolest vibe (see above photo of inside the bakery.. loved the pink fonts!).

I have to say, I am a sucker for weekend getaways like this. You can explore the most beautiful places that Ontario has to offer on an affordable budget and see what our province truly has to offer, only a few hours drive from home. With a quick pack and change of clothes, some snacks/wine to enjoy (and no airports or line-ups, woohoo!!) you can travel and enjoy the outdoors so quickly. We opted to take backroads on the way home to enjoy a more scenic route… I was blown away by the beautiful views and the number of farms we drove by that were so impressive.

Reflecting on the vitality of rural Ontario after seeing all of the impressive farms and towns we drive through, when I returned home Sunday night I tweeted: “After one of the most beautiful drives through rural Ontario today,can’t help but feel so grateful for this beautiful province we call home.”

I’m not sure if its because I was born and raised in rural Ontario, but the immense pride I have when visiting towns like Bayfield/Southampton/Port Elgin and discovering what makes these little towns so unique, makes me so proud to be from such a beautiful province. I’m sure so many fellow small town Ontarians can relate.

If your open to travelling and exploring new areas (literally in your backyard), it can be the best feeling when your taking in something new, similar to what I blogged about earlier this week about how summer 2016 has been the summer of so many firsts for me.

I always feel so refreshed, reinvigorated, recharged and so inspired while away on getaways like this. As a creative communications professional who is always churning out new ideas and thoughts, on getaways like this, I wish I had my laptop to capture all of the ‘magic’ that my brain comes up with. But then again, I’m trying to live up to the above quote and enjoy time with the people I’m with and the places I’m visiting, away from a computer or smartphone {note: the smartphone was only used to capture the amazing photos above!}

Explore Ontario, people, words can be put to paper when the weekend is over.